Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30842
Hints and tips by Senf
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***/****
A very good Wednesday morning from Winnipeg after a very comfortable first flight yesterday, The second one delayed by 90 minutes at Calgary, but still with my favourite Canadian airline Westjet!
Another entertaining and reasonably straightforward Wednesday puzzle which meant it was easy to complete most of the blog during the 90 minute delay mentioned above and I did the final titivation when I get home and before I ran out of steam. But there are a couple of clues that didn’t make a lot of sense to me and if there are errors I apologise in advance.
Candidates for favourite – 1a, 13a, 26a, and 5d.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the Click here! buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Line old Liberal texted, very amused (8,3,4)
LAUGHING OUT LOUD: The expansion of an abbreviation used in text messages formed from the single letters for Line Old and Liberal.
9a Following American situation, I worry over minor details (7)
FUSSPOT: The single letter for Following, the two letters for American, and a synonym of (difficult?) situation.
10a English cross with reporters, say (7)
EXPRESS: The single letter for English, the letter that can represent a Saltire, and (with) a collective noun for reporters.
11a Where hem is secured, mostly (2,3,4)
IN THE MAIN: An expression for mostly – a slight case of brain failure on this one, any sensible suggestions most welcome..
12a Delivery from Mike, first-class parcel at the rear (4)
MAIL: The letter represented by Mike in the phonetic alphabet, the letter and numeral for first class, and the last letter (at the rear) of parceL.
13a Thanks Charlie on Twitch for sweet (3,3)
TICTAC: The two letter synonym for thanks and the represented by Charlie in the phonetic alphabet placed after (on) a three letter twitch.
15a Busy life next to large town – Kendal perhaps (8)
FELICITY: An anagram (busy) of LIFE followed by (next to) a term for a large town.
18a Very sour about inspector estate agent recommends? (8)
SURVEYOR: An anagram (about) of VERY SOUR.
19a Hill area with trail (6)
ASCENT: The single letter for Area and a type of trail (followed by a tracker dog?).
22a Like park signs seen occasionally (4)
AKIN: Alternate letters (seen occasionally) selected from pArK sIgNs.
23a A shade dejected after August (5,4)
ROYAL BLUE: A synonym for dejected placed after a synonym of August – <em>it depends on the pronunciation of August</em>.
26a One runs with wild ass, not finishing for a long time (4,3)
IRON AGE: The Roman numeral for one, the single letter for crickety runs, and an (obscure Asian?) wild ass with the last letter deleted (not finishing).
27a Legendary figure who opens mouth to see gold filling? (3,4)
ALI BABA: A folk tale in Arabic added to the One Thousand and One Nights of a poor woodcutter who opens the mouth of a cave with the magic words Open Sesame and finds gold filling the cave – another one where any sensible suggestions will be welcome.
28a Instruction to prevent blades from deteriorating? (4,3,3,5)
KEEP OFF THE GRASS: An instruction to avoid stepping on (green) blades in a park?
Down
1d Bolshevik maybe went first (7)
LEFTIST: A synonym of went and the first as an ordinal number.
2d Go down after winning, dismayed (5)
UPSET: A three letter word equivalent to go down (when referring to the Sun going down at the end of the day?) the two letter synonym for winning (as in leading) before a game or contest is finished.
3d Join Yankee priest initially interrupting crazy heathen (9)
HYPHENATE: The letter represented by Yankee in the phonetic alphabet and the first letter (initially) of Priest inserted into (interrupting) and anagram (crazy) of HEATHEN.
4d Spot weight going up? Moderate! (3,3)
NOT BAD: The reversal (going up) of all of a synonym of spot and an imperial unit of weight.
5d Shrub nursed by Nicole and Erica (8)
OLEANDER: A lurker (nursed by) found in three words in the clue.
6d “Bootleg”: essentially, to copy recording (4)
TAPE: The middle letter (essentially) of booTleg and a synonym of to copy.
7d Secret agent in action (9)
OPERATIVE: A double definition – note that ‘in is part of the second definition.
8d Show, detective drama, entertains son (7)
DISPLAY: The two letters for a Senior Detective and what drama is an example of contains the single letter for Son – shouldn’t there be an indication of definition by example for drama?
14d Meat-eater‘s new tooth briefly beset by pains (9)
CARNIVORE: The single letter for New a term for TOOTH with the last letter deleted (briefly) inserted into (beset by) a synonym of pains.
16d Sacked linguist admitting noun is offensive (9)
INSULTING: An anagram (sacked) of LINGUIST containing (admitting) the single letter for Noun.
17d Surely excited about one’s first female pronoun! (8)
YOURSELF: An anagram (excited) of Surely containing (about) the first letter of One and followed by the single letter for female.
18d Host with rose plant (3,4)
SEA PINK: A perhaps unusual synonym of host, the checkers should help, and a synonym of rose (as a colour).
20d Pot and case, loose accessories in Boots (7)
TOE CAPS: An anagram (loose) of POT and CASE – nothing to do with the High Street Chemists.
21d Secluded in Grimsby, pathetically small track (6)
BYPATH: A lurker (secluded in) found in two words in the clue.
24d In Arequipa’s first shopping complex, climbing animal (5)
LLAMA: The reversal (climbing) of all of the first letter of Arequipa and a four letter shopping complex.
25d First couple in Harrods look for ring (4)
HALO: The first two letters (couple) of HArrods and LOok.
Quick Crossword Pun:
ROCS + EMU + SICK = ROXY MUSIC
I found this to be a bit of a struggle but enjoyable, nevertheless. I did like the busy city life at 15a because it sent me on a tour of The Lake District before realisation dawned. 8d sent me on a trawl through every detective series in which I could insert the letter “n” to make a sensible word meaning “show”. Another realisation dawned and 8d became my COTD.
Thank you, setter for the fun. Thank you, Mr. Mustard for the hints. Pleased to hear you are home safe and sound.
The Quickie pun was neat. Someone will, no doubt, post a performance.
I was the same with 15a, I said to George I would hardly call Kendal a city! Then the penny dropped.
I think most of us went charging at Kendal as a city – I did despite The Good Life being one of our favourite shows.
Nobody took up the challenge of the Quickie pun so here is a favourite of mine.
Hi Senf
Re 10a, my guess is that the word ‘hem’ is in (secured) the middle of the answer.
Maybe it was meant to be on… And mostly because a leading c got dropped.
Erm, 11a Tom, but I had exactly the same parsing as regards ‘hem’ as you did :-) :-)
That’s the best I could come up with as well, but I presumed I was missing something, because the outer 6 letters could be anything at all and that would still be true.
I agree. It’s not the best clue.
Definition is “mostly”. Wordplay says hem is secured *in* the words “the main”, surely? I’m not sure what “outer 6 letters” has to do with it.
Ah, it’s a reverse lurker!
Thanks, Michael R — that makes much more sense now. As Mustafa explains below, I was trying to make sense of other 6 letters that are surrounding ‘hem’.
I now really like this clue. (Though possibly reverse lurkers, like reverse anagrams, are more suited to Toughies.)
Hi MR
I suppose it could be inside ‘intain’ or ‘tain’.
But neither are words or expressions. So, that’s why I can’t get too excited about it. The clue is okay but no more than that.
Not really, Smylers, because “mostly” gives you “in the main”, and that’s where hem lurks (ie is mostly but not entirely). So for me that makes it work and is a cracker …
But then again, hem is within “int[.]ain” and I keep asking myself whether that’s fairly clued.
On balance, the more I dwell on it, the better the clue gets. Or doesn’t. Hummmm…
I agree but there’s a bit more to it. You need to split the INTAIN into where the HEM is secured which is IN TAIN.
Reverse engineered 11a, bunged in the answer and then saw that hem was “secured” in the middle. The other letters continued to puzzle me.
I thought 11a referred to the helm (hem mostly) – but maybe that’s because I spend too much time messing about on boats !
You’ve expanded your alias (last used in 2015 – where have you been?) so this needed moderation. Both versions will work from now on.
I found a lot of answers were because the word fitted the checkers not necessarily the clue. Still enjoyable though.
In recent weeks I’ve said that Wednesdays are becoming the new Fridays, and this one certainly firms up that theory.
I found it tough.
My last one in was 18d, which I’d never heard of, but I suppose I’d no reason to, as most of my gardening is tidying up or growing chilli plants or veg (although the cherry tree has put the greenhouse in perpetual shade for some years now)
There’s a few that I still can’t see the why of, such as 1a and 11a, does hem mean something else here? So will see the hints for enlightenment.
My two of the day were 9a, and the brilliant 28a. Great fun.
A-ha, 1a is textspeak, never sent a text in my life, so no wonder I couldn’t see the working of it.
Re 11a, the letters of HEM are “secured” within the answer.
This was the last one I parsed. An enjoyable puzzle though. 15a was fun, but 28a my favourite
Thanks setter and Senf
Ta Jules, 11a all wrapped up now.
Haha. Comments 2 and 5 crossed in the ether!
This was good fun for a midweeker. Not too testing but enjoyable.
I haven’t seen ‘sacked’ for an anagram indicator though it makes sense and I biffed 18d as I don’t have green fingers.
Some solvers, who aren’t ‘dan wiv der kidz’, may struggle with 1a but it’s being used more and more by all sorts of folk these days…..even some silver surfers!
I love the setter’s research for finding a settlement with an initial ‘a’ in the region where this animal is found. I haven’t heard of Arequipa but it’s the country’s second biggest city. So, that works for me.
My podium is 18a, 28a (nice) and 16d,
Many thanks to the compiler and Senf.
2*/4*
2.5*/2.5*. Curate’s egg Wednesday again for me. Some good clues interspersed with a few hmms, including 11a.
I particularly liked 28a & 16d.
Thanks to the setter and to Senf.
Best description of this puzzle is [** REDACTED **]. Weird clues and v stretched synonyms (august-royal?)
Little fun for me.
***/*
Thx for the hints
Well that was reasonably straightforward but I agree with Senf that a couple of clues don’t make much sense. It took me a while to work out 14d as I wanted a different synonym of tooth to somehow fit cannibals; how daft am I?! Thanks to Senf and setter.
Waited desperately for the hints to get the reasons behind 11a and 27a but alas…
I also think 1a is slightly incorrect as the phrase shouldn’t contain ‘ing’ to my knowledge.
The whole puzzle didn’t float my boat I’m afraid.
Thanks to the setter and to Senf for the hints
Matthew, I was surprised by 1a too but, on checking the BRB, it says “laugh(ing) out loud”.
“I was very amused.”
“I was laughing out loud.”
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lol
Thanks for correcting my incorrect correction!
I still think it’s the dictionary making a phrase make grammatical sense but the origin of youff aren’t grammatically correct and shorten everything. I still stand by my belief that it doesn’t contain ‘ing’ originally.
But obviously I stand by the dictionary definition so thanks for putting me right 👍
I was familiar with LOL from texting. Of course it used to mean lots of love back when I was young. I was informed by our elder daughter 👍 is now regardedas rude? I can’t keep up…not that I care anyway 😊.
Tough for me. 11a still doesn’t really seem to make sense even after seeing ‘hem’ in the middle of it. SE corner held out the longest.
Well I quite liked that one, though I seem to be in a minority. Got about a third done at midnight, and thought it was going to be a poor DNF, but managed to winkle out the remaining answers after a decent kip. And I think 11a is just fine as a rather delightful self-referential loop! ***/***
[Senf: 26a is missing its underlined words.]
Our blogger puts the rest of us to shame having solved and produced the review for this puzzle whilst waiting between flights on his long journey back home. He’ll doubtless be ready for a long sleep tonight!
Something of a mixed bag for me although I had also solved the Toughie which was quite excellent so this rather paled into insignificance. Top clues for me were 15&22a.
Thanks to our setter and very definitely to Senf who never lets us down.
I heartily concur with your praise for Senf’s work ethic – he surely deserves a pay rise, or at least a gold medal🥇
I would give him both!
A gold medal performer who definitely deserves a pay raise.
Thank you everyone and those who have made similar comments else where in the blog.
Eight years ago, BD did say something about a performance bonus of 5% a year. But, 5% of zero is still . . .
A gentle and largely hugely enjoyable puzzle, barring for me 18a (would an estate agent recommend a surveyor? Usually selected by lender or buyer IME), 14d (surely pains would be cares, in the plural?) and an ongoing inner debate as to whether 11a is brilliant or really doesn’t quite work. I did have a ponder about 24d’s Arequipa until discovering it’s a city in Peru, so the link to llama is apt.
OTOH clear podium places to the excellent 15a, 23a, 27a and 20d.
Generally great surfaces and clear instructions throughout. Thank you setter (this does feel like another Twmbarlwm production to me) and Senf
** a shout out for today’s not-so-Toughie from Hudson, which has several of the most brilliant, imaginative and witty clues I have encountered in a good few months. It’s not a walk-over but well worth a shot if you don’t usually turn to the “inside pages”**
Hi MG
Re 14d: We asked the movers to take pains to be sure that they didn’t damage anything while moving the furniture
OK, I’ll buy that Tom, thanks
It’s more than worth a shot, MG. I have it pegged as an early contender for puzzle of the year.
It will certainly take something very special indeed to go higher in the list, Jane, but there’s the best part of 11 months to go!
This is my kind of puzzle — it stretches me, but I can (just about) get there in the end, and there’s plenty of entertainment along the way. The words in both lurkers were new to me, but being lurkers that didn’t matter at all.
Potential favourites include 3 across clues for their definitions: 10a, with the sneaky “say” at the end; 15a for the delightfully misleading “Kendal”; and 18a for the definition being so long it took me a while to work out what’s going on. In the down clues I liked 3d, again for the definition of “join”; 6d, for the wordplay so niftily matching the definition; and 17d because it took me far too long to separate “female pronoun” and stop trying to insert “she” or “her” somewhere into the wordplay.
Thank you so much to the setter. More like this please!
And thank you to Senf for explaining how 1a and 14d worked. Glad you’ve made it home safely.
PS: Today’s Cross Atlantic puzzle from Dada is worth doing, with a fun gimmick that elevates it from just being a larger quick-crossword with extra general knowledge.
There’s a fresh feel to this puzzle which I enjoyed – thanks to our setter and Senf.
My ticks included 9a, 10a, 15a and 23a.
I’ll add my voice to those recommending Hudson’s Toughie.
Hi G
Can I just say thank you for always welcoming newbies to the blog, regardless of what time of day it is, like last night. It’s hugely appreciated.
I also must give nods to Sue and Mr Cowling for very often doing the same.
It’s a nice touch.
Thanks Tom. BD was always very keen to welcome new commenters and we’re happy to continue to do so.
I will always remember my first post. I was surprised when Big Dave himself welcomed me and I thought to myself how friendly of the boss to take the time to welcome a newbie. It certainly made me feel welcome
.
A mixed bag sums ut up, Jane. There were some good clues but the parsing of some clues that I filled in using the checkers, was rather tricky. 11a had me foxed. I liked the cryptic 28a and the perinoun at 17d plus the clever 27a folk tale hero. Thanks to the compiler and to Senf for the hints. I have only just started doing the Toughie regularly and today’s was quite challenging but satisfying to finish.
11a was entertainingly unusual and 15a tickled me but the cryptic definitions in 27a and 28a took the cake. Nowt wrong with 23a’s august/majestic = royal either! Great fun and skilfully done. Many thanks to our setter and the heroic Senf.
Some parsing passed me by, but I managed to complete this crozzie today, apart from 18d, where my lack of botanical knowledge let me down (receives rap on knuckles from Daisygirl).
In 14d, despite being long in the tooth myself, its synonym escaped me. (Why did autothingy insert an apostrophe in ‘it’s’? Oh, it’s done it again!)
And finally: I have explained to Pipette the text speak for lol, which she uses for ‘lots of love’, but I inserted the correct answer without realising why. Silly me.
PS. Thank you Senf and setter.
LOL was lots of love in the ‘old days’. I rather resent the fact that it has been hi jacked. And would I ever rap your knuckles?🥰
And today’s yoof would not have a clue what SWALK means.
Oh yes. I remember that.
Envelopes? What are they?
😊
And try explaining pen friends. What’s a pen?
A mythical thing Daisygirl won from the Telegraph
Regarding 18d, then it is perhaps better known as thrift. Little pink job grows in coastal areas near salt water, but is spreading to road verges because of salting of the roads. Lecture over. Todays puzzle took a while to solve, and like others, I found 11a difficult to parse completely. My suggestions for COTD are 15a and 26a. Thanks to the setter and for hints
I found this tricky but enjoyable with lots of loose change falling to the ground moments.
I kept thinking of Kenneth Kendall which didn’t help.
Top picks for me were 15a, 28a and 18d.
Thanks to Senf and the setter.
I love ‘lots of loose change falling to the ground moments’, Crazy River.
Very funny.
Oh come on, you don’t need ‘lots of loose change,’ you just need 1p!
Only if I pick the coin up each time between clues!
I found this quite a challenge. I think I enjoyed it, I know I was glad to have completed it. I needed Senf’s hints to confirm parsings on a good few today having, 11a, the answers. 27a made me smile, but cotd must go to the delightful Ms Kendal in 15a. Thanks to compiler and Senf.
Thanks to checkers I finished this puzzle but with many personal health issues cannot be pleased with it or nominate clues clues as worthy of recommendin.
Agree with Senf ,an entertaining puzzle.
11a was indeed somewhat iffy .
Favourite was 15a, a Kendal cheese cake spot on.
Going for a ***/*** thanks setter,
Thoroughly enjoyed this although I fail to see a lurker in the clue for 11a – in the answer, yes so I suppose that counts. Anyway, it worked for me. I shall definitely have a go at the toughie. I am a happy bunny having finally got a young man to make my printer talk to my computer so that I was able to send off three completed guzzles to prizepuzzles. Pens galore. 25a was my clue of the day, so sweet. Many thanks to the clever Setter and to the Mustard Man, glad he got home safely. I’m still telling people about sitting at the station waiting for a man in a red scarf! Secret agent stuff.
And, I am still telling people the story of meeting ‘the lady in a pink coat’ at Liverpool Street station and being glad that there was only one as I might have been whacked round the head with a (weighty) handbag if there was more than one and I had chosen the wrong one!
I enjoyed this too – something a little different from the norm and a couple of instances of 1a when pennies dropped, for example for 15a. Thanks very much to the setter and to Senf for untangling some of knottier areas.
Very entertaining puzzle with some clever and innovative clues, although I can’t decide whether 11a is one of those of not! Those to go on my podium are the two longuns 1a and 28 for the neat word play with 10a in top place for the clever surface read. Thanks to our compiler and the hard working long distance traveller Senf. Thank you sir for all you do for the blog. Hopefully you are now home safe and sound.
For me a tricky Wednesday and I am guessing Twmbarlwm this week. Some parsing hard to figure out for me.
2.5*/3*
Favourites 1a, 11a, 13a, 22a, 28a & 17d — with winner 28a
Thanks to setter & Senf
Senf … why did you have to overshoot Winnipeg and go to Calgary to get back to Winnipeg? Seems a weird flight plan.
Once upon a time the former Mrs Pip booked flights from Heathrow to Calgary via Fort Worth, Texas, saving a huge amount on fares. Aren’t flight arrangements peculiar?
It seemed strange seeing The Great Lakes from above on the second leg.
I would rather fly with WestJet than the ‘other’ Canadian airline* and Calgary is the centre of WestJet’s universe. And, some analysis shows that Winnipeg is two hours or so flying time from Calgary or Toronto and there is not a lot of difference in flying times between Calgary and Heathrow and Toronto and Heathrow.
*I have a pretty low opinion of the ‘other’ Canadian airline and when asked why that is my reply is that if the choice was it or walk I would walk!
Found this somewhat challenging and I definitely wasn’t on the right wave length. Am still completely befuddled by 11a. Favourite has to be 15a as my husband used to say I looked like her, a very very long time ago! Thanks to the setter and to Senf for the many explanations that I needed.
I read some of the early comments before posting as I was equally flummoxed originally by 11a. Having correctly parsed it, I am still not sure whether it is brilliant or awful. That aside, this was a slightly chewy but challenging encounter which I enjoyed, with 1a a favourite alongside 28a.
Thanks to our setter and Senf.
11a could be a double definition with the first definition being nautical. Sails generally have hems and the answer could refer to “in the mainsail”. Rather stretchy I agree.
Thoroughly enjoyed the challenge today, definitely tricky but not nearly has tough as some previous Wednesdays. COTD for me goes to 28a which was a LOL moment. The 5d plant was a gift as we have them all over the place here. Not in our garden though as they are hosts to the nastiest, stinging caterpillars. Thanks to setter and the ever reliable, for the extra mile Senf. Not heard of Westjet, but we did fly many moons ago on WardAir which I believe was also Canadian? Loved it, but it went out of business soon after, at least it did in the US.
WestJet has been around for 30 years starting operations in 1996 with 220 employees, three aircraft, and five destinations and is now the second largest airline in Canada.
Yes, Wardair was a Canadian airline taken over by Canadian Airlines International in the late 1980s. The latter was so badly managed that it failed in the early 2000s.
So far off the pace with this one it was embarrassing – I’d have had kittens had I been tasked with reviewing it. Only completed half of it before going out & have just finished it now back home but needed the aid of a letter reveal to get over the line – couldn’t think of the spot synonym of all things. Missed the sms why at 1a too. Still enjoyed the puzzle though. 15a my fav – she was great in The Good Life.
Thanks to the setter (must be T surely) & to Senf.
Ps emailed Terence yesterday as we haven’t heard from him in a while – all is well & he’s just been too busy to post at his usual time.
Pleased to learn that all is well with Terence, it’s good that we all worry when one of our ‘regulars’ goes missing for any length of time.
Found this tough, even though I was trying to solve it between other activities during the day and evening but did manage the entire NW and SE without fully understanding everything. As I often do, I missed some easy ones (in the NE and SW) and 18d and 26a were beyond me. Therefore, not convinced I enjoyed it but that was my fault. Enjoyed everyone’s comments though. How can I get hold of the esteemed Ed’s hints?
If you mean Chris Lancaster’s book – it’s in paperback & certainly in print
Amazon is ready to sell you a copy (How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword)!
Thanks Senf, noted.
Thanks Huntsman; I probably should have put my comments as a post, rather than a reply to your good self – but I’m new to this so am still on a learning curve (steep). John
Help please, Techy Types. I put my laptop to charge at 11.39 this morning. Have just gone to use it and it has frozen. It still says 11.39 and I cannot switch it off. I have detached it from the charger and left it for half an hour but it is still on and unresponsive.
When I can’t fix a problem I ask Google. Usually you will get help.
I’m sure someone on here will also help 🤞
I’m presuming you have a mobile phone where you will be able to do this!
I’ll bear in mind the Google tip – thank you Bijou.
My techy husband says hold down the power button to 5- 10 seconds to force a reboot.
Good luck
Yeay ☺️. Clever husband. I had stabbed at it several times but not held it down that long. Would he consider bigamy.?
Thank him /you so much, I knew someone would know.
Glad it helped, he does have his uses!
I will happily share his brain with you……a sort of virtual bigamy!
Loved 11a, great clue once the penny dropped.
Thanks to today’s setter and Senf.
Another tricky guzzle in parts but with the help of Senf I completed it. So thanks to him and the setter for the opportunity to stretch my brain cells!
I completed this and thoroughly enjoyed it but did not understand the parsing of several, all have already been mentioned so I was not alone. I thought there were some brilliant anagrams.
Many thanks to the setter and to the very diligent Senf for the hints.
Another excellent puzzle completed at a steady pace, no real holds and only needed to check a couple. 2* / 3*
Liked the quickie pun, good band.
Thanks to Senf and Setter
Hi all, setter here.
Thank you for the comments, and thanks to Senf for the review.
IMHO, there’s no way 11A is as simple as ‘HEM’ hidden in ‘IN TAIN’. There must be more to it than that.
I wonder whether it’s HEM is secured IN T(r)AIN, where ‘train’ = long piece of material on back of dress, with the ‘r’ missing ie “mostly” = TAIN.
Alternatively, the suffix ‘tain’ means ‘hold’ in Latin, so that might have something to do with it instead ie Setter’s “secured” (= ‘held’) could mean a word ending in TAIN, hence the IN TAIN.
MAINTAIN might work since most of (“mostly”) MAINTAIN = INTAIN?
I think this is being rather misconstrued/overcomplicated. HEM is in… THE MAIN. The instructions to find HEM are the solution. So where is HEM? Answer = In… THEMAIN. IN THE MAIN also means mostly. The compiler must be laughing his socks off about the shenanigans going on at the moment
I disagree. Telegraph Crossword Clues & Solutions don’t leave part-Solutions such as IN TAIN unexplained or rather ‘un-clued’!
Why else would Senf be stumped?
Sorry if 11a caused problems for some, but my test solver understood it without any query, and the editor singled out as a favourite!
The explanation is exactly as Jules has it above.
It’s a slightly unusual device that I thought would still be easily solvable from the enumeration, and it really is just a definition part (“mostly”) coupled with a cryptic component, like most other clues. (And I was trying to avoid the “At sea, mostly” chestnut.)
Thanks again.
Thanks for clarifying, T.
It certainly wasn’t one of my favourites. Indeed, it was my least favourite and your poorest Clue in the Crossword by far. It was clearly one of Senf’s least favourite too – he/she couldn’t parse it either and clearly thought he/she was missing something – although he/she is probably too polite to say so! The wordplay was woeful since the “INT AIN” part was left hanging with no explanation.
One could devise any number of Clues, with the Solution being a phrase or a word, with another word used in the Clue hidden in the Solution (phrase/word), with the Definition of the Solution at the end. But without the wordplay to explain the Letters around the hidden word or without the Solution being an all-encompassing pun, it’s not clever.
I’ve been doing the Telegraph Crossword for 52 years since I was 14, so I know a good and a bad Clue when I see one!
Evidently Chris Lancaster, took a different view.
Indeed he did, Hintsman.
XTW2, they can’t all be winners!
This “reversed lurker” can only work because the solution is a phrase that begins with the word IN. There can’t be many of them in the dictionary that also include a hidden word.
The wordplay combined with the solution explains that hem is hidden IN THE MAIN. So the wordplay is basically a riddle: Where will you find hem? In ‘the main’.
That the outside letters (T AIN) in the solution aren’t specifically referred to in the clue is the same as for a conventional hidden. Eg: Trimming that’s part of chemise (3). The clue doesn’t explicitly refer to C ISE.
4*/3* …
liked 25D “First couple in Harrods look for ring (4)”